Ranma's Warrior Within
by Nuvares
Summary: A Ranma:Prince of persia cross. First chapter is the teaser I wrote just to tide over while I get the prologue done.Prologue up. No prereaders so it might suck something fierce.
1. Teaser

The Warrior Within

Ranma uses the Naban Mirror to prevent himself from getting cursed at Jusenkyou.  
Changing his past he's changed his fate and has incured the Wrath or the Dhaka,  
the Guardian of fate and the Timeline.

His fate rewritten, his punishment; Death.  
Seven years of running from the Dhaka and his death sentence he finally finds a way to change his newly rewritten fate.  
But the words of an old mystic echo in his ears, "You cannot change your Fate.  
No man can."

"Fate is never final. Ranma Saotome never loses." 


	2. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Prince of Persia, or any other trademark name or thing mentioned here-in. thank you for reminding me why I'm not rich.

Prologue

Selfishness, it's the basis of all action; even the most selfless acts are made for the most selfish of reasons. The ultimate of selfish acts is to work against the fate decided for you. To change what had already been written in the books of destiny. Not many think it's possible; fewer know how. Let me tell you a tail, a fanciful tail of how changing your fate has more consequences than one might think.

Some say curses are things of fiction, one of those little bits of fairy tails along with witches and goblins. While I've never met a witch or a goblin, I have been cursed and let me tell you; Curses are nothing to scoff at. Call me crazy, insane or whatever you will but until you've seen what I have seen; well, lets just say the stain wouldn't be pretty. This tale starts as many before it have, with a woman.

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"Why must you be such a PERVERTED FREAK!" The scream of Akane Tendo could be heard for two blocks as the object of her ire flew over the stone wall surrounding the Tendo home. Ranma Saotome heir to the Saotome School of martial arts grumbled as he picked himself up off the pavement and brushed clean his clothes.

"It's the same thing every day, Pervert this; Freak that. No one ever listens to me." Sighing his head dropped as he made his way back to his surrogate home. "I wish I'd never gotten cursed." stepping into the hall he looked at the mirror that hung there reflecting him in its cracked face. Akane's rage once again taking a toll on the house. "Wait, what about the Naban Mirror?" They had tried it before but with Genma and Happosai there it had gone as wrong as plans normally did around him. He started wondering what would happen if he went alone. Could one do what three couldn't?

That night Ranma snuck into Happosai's room to steal, borrow the ticket to a curse free martial artist. A large smile creased his face as he pulled the shiny pink mirror from a drawer filled with women's panties. Now for the hard part, creating a tear. Moving quietly through the house he ended at the kitchen with an onion out and cut it in half with a kitchen knife. Brining the vegetable up to his nose he took a long whiff of the chemicals that cause crying. Tears came to his eye on queue the few droplets splashing across the mirrors face.

"I want to go back to the day before I encountered Jusenkyou!" he almost yelled the command glad that he would finally be free of the bane he suffered. A gasp caught his attention as he turned to see Kasumi standing there before the world dissolved into pure white nothingness.

Waking up on the side of the road Ranma quickly surveyed his surroundings. Trees, check; dirt road, check; mirror in hand, check. Everything was accounted for and the forest looked right. He was a day from Jusenkyou along the path that his father and he had taken. Everything was on track to preventing his curse from ever happening, the only thing now was to decide on weather he would stop them from reaching Jusenkyou or to stop his younger self from falling in the spring.

Instead of getting into the how's and whys lets accept that he did indeed change his past and his future, modified his fate from what had been written and returned to reap the rewards of his endeavor. If the world were truly a good place he might just have done that, but it isn't and when he returned it wasn't to the sight he wished to see. He was promised something and the selfishness in him had grasped at it like it was a life preserver and he on the ocean. This was just another example of the chaos that permeated his everyday life.

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The world faded from its brilliant illumination to show the dining room of the Tendo home. It appeared to be early morning from the light coming into the dojo from the surroundings. Right on time to get up to his room and sleep before anyone woke up and tried to figure out why he was up. It all worked in theory if he hadn't hit the particularly creaky spot in the floor.

"Who's there?" Kasumi's voice floated down to the boy as he winced, at least he could say he was thirsty as long as she didn't ask why he was in his full clothes and carrying a mirror. He considered the possibility of using one of his techniques to stay hidden and hope she never noticed but as he was contemplating this she continued to come down the stairs and looked upon him. He stared at her as she stared at him then did the one thing he would have never thought. She screamed. "A BURGLAR!" the statement got everyone's attention including the "burglar's."

"Huh? Burglar? what's wrong Kasumi?" he asked getting a strange look on his face as the rest of the family rushed into the dining room to see what the commotion was, Akane and Soun appearing with weapons drawn. Even Happosai had come down the stairs smoking his pipe while looking on with little interest.

"Drop what you've taken and leave this home before we have to subdue you and call the police." Soun displayed a strong face in the contest to protect his home and family. The shinai he carried wavered slightly as he spoke telling any who could read that he was truly just showing face. Akane on the other hand stood fast with a similar weapon in hand.

"Wha?" Ranma's witty comeback left much to be desired as he tried to process everything that had happened and wondered what went wrong. "It's me Ranma, don't you remember me?"

"Soun stand down. If he wanted to he could easily beat all of you at once. Don't you recognize the aura he has?" Happosai's words cut through the tension causing all parties to look at him. "Plus the only thing he's stolen, it appears, is a trinket that belongs to me. Tell me boy what do you know about that mirror you hold?"

"Happosai, I'd really like to know what's going on. I have here the Naban mirror and I just got back. But it seems things are allot different then I wanted." he sighed as the diminutive martial arts master walked out between him and the Tendo's. "Things definitely weren't supposed to end up like this"

"So you used the Mirror to change the past?" he asked lighting his pipe with his ki as he thought over the words. "If you did then you must leave. For you put everyone in grave danger by being here." he looked at the boy as if he was seeing through him instead of at him.

"What do you mean by that?" his eyes narrowed as he moved into a martial arts stance causing Soun and Akane to look at him in wonder as he used the same stance they did. "I've lived past more danger then you Happosai. You're not going to make me back down." the small man chuckled as he smoked his pipe.

"It's not me dear boy, but since your obviously not as dead as your aura says you are we're about to be visited by the Dahaka; and regardless of how much you've survived. Nothing survives the Dahaka." turning he started back leaving his back to face the boy like many turned upon the damned.

"What do you mean? What's the Dahaka?" Ranma was shocked out of his stance as he saw the action. Normally his 'master' wouldn't turn his back on him unless it was to run away.

"The Dahaka is the Guardian of the timeline, you've changed it and somehow died; now it'll come for you and make sure that you are dead. Leave now for it won't care weather or not anyone or anything is near when it comes for you." moving back he took hold of Soun's pants and tugged on them as he passed. "Leave him or else you will die." already the room seemed to darken as a black mist snaked its way through the room heading towards Ranma. "Its here, goodbye boy."

"No, I won't die like this." Ranma turned and ran through the house the twin streamers following him blowing aside furniture without a care as it pursued the young man. Through the kitchen he jumped and slid over the island in the middle of the room to gain some time while he slid past into the back of the compound. Falling to the ground as the smoke burst through the Tendo's wall and took a quick look behind him as the mists formed into a large human shape with long goat like horns and amour that was the color of pitch. "Shit."

"nur ot erehwon si erehT" its twisted words sparked Ranma into movement as he dodged the twisting tentacles that erupted from the thing's chest and chased after him. Leaping the wall he continued to run through the streets looking back to see the thing burst through the stone wall surrounding the Tendo home. There truly was no place for him there.

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"Faster, you call yourself a warrior! A warrior can use any blade put to him." the man yelled as he furiously slashed at Ranma. While his dislike of weapons hadn't decreased but his respect for them had increased with his daily struggles.

"Yes Sensei." his voice was cold as he picked up the weapon again and lunged in to attack the man before him. The clashing of steel rang out in the main room of the school, both present doing their best to maim the other in some way.

Ranma cut low while setting up to vault his teacher, the man seemed to sense the move and stepped on Ranma's bent knee using it as a stepping stone into an Arial combo that left Ranma with a wicked scar and a newfound respect for weapon users.

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Ranma cursed as he ran from the ever vigilant Dahaka, dodging everything in his path. His mind usually devoted to keeping up in a fight adapting to this most important fight for survival. His vision tunneled as he followed the path his brain set out. Survival instincts kicking in to try and take him to safety.

Down the twisting streets he ran using boxes and other decree as vaulting points to try and increase his gain. The world faded as he used any and every method of travel available. The streets blurred as he jumped and swung on fire escapes and traveled along rooftops being ever followed by his nemesis.

Rooftops became streetlamps, became fences as he moved his surroundings flashing by like so many forgotten pieces of history as he went from swinging on clothes lines to hopping stall to stall. Even going so far as to run along a wall far enough to vault in a second direction to try and avoid the Dahaka.

Ranma's psyche turned darker with every passing flight leaving a wake of destruction wherever they met. The solitude of his new life pushing the normally cheerful boy along a stoic path of self destruction.

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"What the hell?" he looked upon the strange hammer his opponent wielded, the unwieldy weapon looking off balanced as the man swung around trying to hit him. Ducking the head level swing his sword flashed out and sunk deeply into the thug's belly. One down three to go.

While the daggers the others held were more conventional he did respect the unadulterated power of the hammer. Kicking the first thug in the gut he grabbed the hammer where it had fallen continuing his spin and crashing the iron head into the closest punk caving his skull. He continued his spin catching the second man in the chest resonating in a sickening thud of broken ribs.

"One left." his words were dark and hollow a shell of the boy he once was. There had been a time when he would have blanched at the thought of hurting people let alone becoming a killer. Three years on the run for his life plus the constant battle with everything from street gangs to the Dahaka had left him with an altered view on death.

The last of the gang fell as the maul imbedded itself in his back from where Ranma had thrown it. The warrior having gathered his sword was leaving the scene when it impacted.

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Running had become a common occurrence for Ranma over the years, it seemed that he had less and less time whenever he stopped before the Dahaka found him again. He was in Shanghai the towering buildings creating twisting paths littered with people and their meager possessions. The Dahaka didn't care though. Looking behind him he saw as people and things were pulled into the black hole that was the guardian of the timeline.

The stone pavement rumbled as the twin frontrunners of the Dahaka grabbed for Ranma's shirt; barely missing as he pushed himself into a sprint. Everything seemed to close in around him a wall appeared in the midst of the flight halting his progress.

"No! Not after all this time." Looking around he could feel his pursuit closing in strangling the streets and his escape routes. No way to go but foreword and that put him between a rock and a hard place. nowhere to go but up, and up he did making continuous triangle jumps taking him higher and higher away from his enemy.

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Seven years of training and running, staying only as long as it took for the Dahaka to find him he traveled all over the Asian continent, from Japan to Korea to China and India, each place he visited took a toll upon his mind, and while his fighting skill progressed he changed, leaving behind the martial artist and emerging a warrior. Passing west he came upon an old man in the deserts of Pakistan one who held more knowledge then one should rightly have access to.

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"The Island of Time." The old man paused as he shuffled towards a makeshift shelf in the tent he occupied. "The place where the sands were created, the place from which the maharajah stole the hourglass housing the Sands of Time."

"And what if I could reach this island?" Ranma stood at the door carefully watching through the glare of the sun for any sign of his pursuer. Turning back as the man spoke he let his eyes grow accustomed to the relative darkness inside.

"They say the maharajah found portals there," blindly grasping at the shelf he found a jar and cloth bundle, "where one could pass backwards through time." stumbling back to the center of the tent he sat on the many cushions adorning the ground.

"Back through time," hope sprang unbidden into the heart of the Black haired warrior, "to the birthplace of the sands." His mind raced thought he possibilities of that statement, his almost smile faded quickly as the reason for his predicament forced itself into his mind, "something terrible happened when I looked into that mirror."

"You found the Mirror of Eternity?" The incredulous tone in his voice and the widening of his cataract covered eyes displayed to Ranma the weight of the situation.

"Worse! I used it."

"Things are very dire indeed," he popped the cork on the jar and poured what looked like sand into his hand while mumbling under his breath causing the sand to glow and form into a broken pendant. "Whoever shall use the Sands of Time to change the past must die." Taking the cloth bundle he removed a similar cracked artifact and held them together causing them to merge into one that looked in pristine condition.

"I was forced to run, to kill, to loose everything that made me happy; everything that I had loved." Ranma had fallen to his knees now the memorized of the years of fighting and running flooding his head.

"But now an unstoppable beast chases you"  
"For the first time in my life, I am afraid"  
"And you will die!" his words held a finality to them that none Ranma had ever encountered had matched. "The beast, the Dahaka is the guardian of the timeline." he stared Ranma straight in the eyes, "you are supposed to die, so it will catch you and see to it so that you meet you fate." at this Ranma stood and moved to leave when the mans staff stopped him.

"It is better to try than to wait here for death."

"Madness! Even if you reach the island, you'll still have to face the empress of time!"

"I will travel back in time and prevent the sands from ever being made! If there are no sands, the Dahaka will have no quarrel with me!" Starting to push past he was surprised to feel the amulet get pushed into his grasp. Nodding in a gesture that would go unknown to the man he walked out of the tent the last words haunting his trail.

"Go then, young warrior. But know this: your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate...no man can."

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And that's how Ranma found himself standing on the rickety old boat with a crew that he wouldn't trust to not try and slit his throat; heading for an island that everyone said didn't exist. But to him, it was the search for salvation, the way to a life redeemed of his sins. Where he could return to the life he had so callously thrown away and hopefully make amends.

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Author's Notes:

This is the prologue, and unfortunately for those who've read my other works I'm not the fastest author around.

This will also be riddled with errors since I'm not an English major and so I tend to make mistakes that not even Word can fix. So bear with me.

C&C: Flames: Death Threats: Youarepsycho.ca 


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